Eiichirō Maruo
|kanji = 丸尾 栄一郎 |romaji = Maruo Eiichiro |nickname = Ei-chan |gender = Male |birthday = September 20 |zodiac = |bloodtype = A |height = 170cm 175cm |weight = 68kg |hair = Brown/Black |occupation = |family = Sanae Maruo Baby Steps Manga: Chapter 313, page 114 Kazuya Maruo |school = Oosugi High School |affiliation = STC |style = All Rounder |racket = Prince Tour Diablo XP Prince EXO3 Tour Team 100+ |offense = 3 |defense = 4 |mental = 5 |technique = 4 |physical = 3 |manga = Chapter 1 |anime = Episode 1 |seiyu = Taishi Murata }} Eiichiro Maruo (丸尾 栄一郎), also called Ei-chan by his friends, is the main protagonist of Baby Steps. He later becomes a member of Southern Tennis Club on his mother's suggestion to fulfill his lack of exercise. His current aim is to become a professional tennis player. Appearance Eiichiro has an average stature for a tennis player. He has an odd hairstyle with short hair on the sides and spiked hair in the middle. He has a superior eyesight as compared to a normal person. After training hard for becoming a professional, he has muscled up a bit and his body has become totally tennis oriented. He usually wears uniform at the school and tennis clothes at the club. Another noticeable feature is that he always carries a bundle of notes with him, be it for studying or for tennis. Personality Eiichiro has a perfectionist personality and is also called All-A, referring to his perfect grades. He tries to achieve perfection in every task that he performs, be it studies or tennis. He works very hard to achieve his goals to an extent that it even surprises his friends and tennis club members. He is sometimes referred to as a high-school boy who sounds like an old man due to his habits of trying to do everything in order to be perfect. Plot Introduction to the Tennis World Arc During his second week at high school, Eiichiro continues writing his study notes. When Ei-Chan was eating his lunch, Natsu Takasaki from class 2 appears to borrow his world history notes. After Natsu describes Ei-Chan as weird (as his notes look excessively perfect), she accidentally falls down and ruins his notes. After school, Kojirou Kageyama invites him to the shougi club, but Ei-Chan rejects him and explains that he wants to participate in some exercise. Upon arrival at home, his mother persuades him to visit the neighborhood tennis club, Southern Tennis Club. At first he refuses to go, but his mother snaps and forces him to visit. As he arrives at the Southern Tennis Club (STC), he is amazed by the size and facilities it consists. He notices Natsu Takasaki playing tennis in one of the indoor tennis courts, but is discovered by Tajima Yuuki. Yuuki immediately believes that he is spying on them and yells loudly, hence bring everyone's attention to Ei-Chan. After being discovered, Nacchan introduces him to the players of the Southern Tennis Club. He reluctantly joins the warm-up exercises which involves running 10 laps, 10 line touches, jump and dashing, 5 sets of side-steps, dashing, and etc. Unfortunately, Ei-Chan collapses after doing all the exercises and is called pitiful by Yuuki. Afterwards, he finds an excuse to leave, but is questioned by Natsu of whether studying is fun. Natsu reveals her intentions to become a professional tennis player, which causes Ei-Chan to reflect on his life. When he was riding the bus home, he decides to get off half the journey and run back home. He later collapse again whilst running, and asks his mother to pick him up. The next day, Natsu passes a message from Coach Morimoto, to him. He is invited to the Southern Tennis Club again to practice playing tennis. After a few days, he decides to visit the tennis club again and successfully finishes the warm-up exercises without collapsing. Whilst waiting for coach Morimoto, Ei-Chan decides to observe A court. He is introduced to Takuma Egawa who demonstrates a powerful serve which intimidates him. After Nacchan teaches him the basic stance to hit the ball, he successfully hits a light serve from Takuma. After his successful hit, he begins to practice playing tennis, even though he is unable to produce the same shot. He also develops a Tennis Edition of his notes, just to feel the great sensation again, from his first successful shot. Following his hours of practice he discovers Nacchan and Takuma, and believes that they were dating. To his appreciation, he discovers that it was a misunderstanding. Soon after, Nacchan finds him hiding in the bushes and she joins his tennis practice. As she leaves, Kageyama perceives that he likes Nacchan, hence causing Ei-Chan to feel flustered and confused. At home, he looks up at a dictionary for the definitions of like and love. The following evening, he spends approximately 6 hours practicing tennis. Even when Nacchan calls his name, his concentration prevents his from realizing her. For the first time, Natsu says that Ei-Chan will become a strong player, but Takuma shows his doubts. Road to Professional Arc Now Eiichiro is aiming to become a professional player. He asks his parents about this but they refuse to think that he should focus on his studies, so Eiichiro makes a promise for them. In one year he will devote his entire attention to tennis and prepare for the "All Japan Junior Tennis Competition". If he loses in the tournament he will give up his dream about becoming a tennis pro and go back to his studies. The next day, Eiichiro goes to the STC, where Soji Ike comes and asks Eiichiro for a match. Eiichiro accept his request, the match was hard for Eiichiro but he managed to score a point before Soji Staff comes and stops the match. Soji goes back to Florida leaving a big impact on Eiichiro. On the next day Eiichiro starts his long training to strengthen his body, mind and techniques. All Japan Junior Arc After a year of long hard training and tournaments, it's finally time for the All-Japan Junior. After he passes the first round with ease, it is time for his first challenge against Okada. After beating Okada, people start to acknowledge Eiichiro more. And then in the quarter-finals, he faces off against Ogata. And Maruo is now in progress of facing Kanda Hisashi Skills Eiichiro initially had very little athletic ability, but after working hard continuously to achieve perfection, he developed a higher stamina and more advanced tennis skills. As a result of his trip to Florida, he picked up a routine that helps maintain a constant state of mind and consistent movement. Stated by himself, he seems to do well after fixing his strings and taking a deep breath. Notetaking/Observation One of Eiichiro's notable traits is his constant notetaking. Eiichiro is known for writing down his observations during matches in great detail, making probablilty charts for shot-selections, service placement, and habits as well as shot by shot replays of each point the games. This allows him to collect his thoughts and come up with strategy to beat his opponents. Basic Form According to many tennis players and coaches, Eiichiro's shot hitting form is perfect. This is because he used to practice his form by hitting against the wall and wrote down how he needed to adjust his body to create an ideal swing. Eiichiro's mastery of the basics is the foundation of his all-court style, using a variety of basic shots to win points. Superior Eyesight Eiichiro's eyesight is noted to be extraordinary, being able to follow the trajectory of fast balls. Even during his beginner days, Eiichiro was able to see all of Egawa's serves clearly and see their path. Its due to his superior vision and the ability to distinguishably notice it at such high speeds. Eiichiro later becomes able to use his eyesight along with his analysis of his opponent to predict where the ball will go by looking at the opponent's body. He further improves on his eyes with a training regiment when he goes to Florida again after the All-Japan Junior high tournament. Ball Control Eiichiro has developed a great control over his shots and can hit with a very high accuracy to any part of the court. He started with using a 9 square division, but has increased its accuracy to 81 square division. Fast Serve After his match with Egawa, he realized that he needed a fast serve in order to keep the flow of game with him before starting a rally using control skills. He copied the movements of Egawa in order to learn a fast serve. However, for Ei-chan to fully master a fast serve, he had the help of Coach Aoi to train various muscles to utilize it. Tennis Oriented Body After deciding to focus his whole year to his goal of winning the Nationals and becoming a pro, Eiichiro practiced with the coach regularly, using many different routines.This helped him break his body and develop it into a body which is totally aimed for tennis. Visualizing a Winning Vision During the Kantou match against Nabae, Maruo devised an array of strategical attack patterns that pierced through Nabae's formidable defences. During the All-Japan Championship tournament, he did extremely well by carefully scripting his scenarios against Tamakoshi who is a pro. Tamakoshi was exceedingly confused during the match, and thought that he was unable to perform well because he was not allowed to by Maruo. Realization He realizes it was all just a dream. Relationships Natsu Takasaki Eiichiro and Natsu started off as great friends who always cared about each other. However, in chapter 135 they became a couple and realized their love for one another. Takuma Egawa Eiichiro and Takuma are on fairly friendly terms. Eiichiro admires Takuma and his superior tennis abilities, and he is currently aiming to be as good as him. Tennis Matches |} References }} Navigation